


The Sun In Your Eyes

by takoyolki



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Suicide Attempt, THEY'RE HAPPY OKAY, but it's not tragic, fluff but more like a lot of happiness???, it's not really a good/bad ending, they're still plenty happy though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-18 15:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11877597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/takoyolki/pseuds/takoyolki
Summary: "Say what? You've never been outside of this house?" Taeyong asks, his eyes almost bulging out of its sockets as he looks at Jaehyun, his face painted with both fear and awe."Well, yes. I've never really had any reason to go out, I guess." Jaehyun mumbles, scratching his nape as he looks down, embarrassed."Let's go, then." Taeyong says, hands on Jaehyun's wrist, ready to pull him out of his house.(alternatively, jaehyun's a sad child with issues and taeyong's the one who shows it to him that being alive isn't so bad after all.)





	The Sun In Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> hello! before you read this, i just want to inform you that i'm still unsure of what i should rate this story as - either 'teen and up' or 'mature'. i've went for the former, but if ever i need to change the ratings, do inform me!  
> an early warning to you, this story includes:  
> \- attempted suicide mentions/scenes.  
> \- suicidal and depression themes.  
> \- underage drinking and vaping (slight/minimal).  
> \- character death.  
> if any of you are easily bothered/triggered by the ones listed above, do either move away from this story, or if you decide to continue reading, do steel yourself or scroll through the scenes if you wish! i apologize for the scenes, by the way.  
> note that: jaehyun is 18 and taeyong is 21; ages stated are in korean years and everyone else are the ages they are now.  
> +: terribly unbeta-ed. i appologize for the grammatical errors/double wordings/nonsense that might've happened due to me not beta-reading this (yet).  
> (cross-posted on aff!)

With a shallow exhale of his shaky breath, Jaehyun pulls his legs closer to his body, folding himself as he hugs his knees close to his chest. He pillows his chin in between of his two knees, eyes wandering out and about the scene before him. Jaehyun is inside the chilling interior of his room, comforted by the warmth he obtained from his duvet that he had wrapped around himself prior to sitting on the polished wooden floor of his bedroom. Enclosing him inside the room, separating himself from the outside, was a set of two, large and tall, imposing wooden doors with multiple squares of clear glass decorating it's surface, providing a view that jaehyun adores to appreciate on certain days where he would decide to sit down and give himself a short amount of break.

Today, behind the doors, Jaehyun sees flashes of lightning bolts coloring the dark night sky, enhancing the presence of a few clouds nearby of it. His ears catch the loud patters of the heavy rain droplets upon the house - on the roof, on the balcony of Jaehyun's room which hides itself under another set of roofs, and even some of the rain reached Jaehyun's door, flying from the sky in a fury of a downpour, the wind giving a hand in its dispersion. Jaehyun sees some lights far away from his house, those light almost seeming as soft fairy lights, but Jaehyun knows that those are the lights coming from the houses far from his, a length he has never known exactly how far.

Out of the blue, Jaehyun's ears hear angry sounds; sounds that are louder than the thunderstorm pouring outside. He hears a few words coming outside of his bedroom, the screaming of a female, and then the low but loud response from a male. 

His parents are arguing and having another fight.

Silently, Jaehyun tries to pull his knees even closer to himself, encasing himself like an armadillo, in fear. In fear of what exactly, Jaehyun is still unsure. His father had never abused him before, nor has his mother. He had never been the direction of the anger and hatred seething from the two, and they had never so much as acknowledge his presence by much. His two parents never did hurt Jaehyun physically, and they provide Jaehyun a comfortable living space, gadgets he used during the times he could or wanted, food, water, and clothes which are beautiful and comfortable at the same time. They give Jaehyun education by calling teachers to the house to teach him during the weekdays, and they used to call a caretaker to take care of Jaehyun before he was able to care for himself. 

Though they had given Jaehyun all he could think of to ask and more, Jaehyun is still afraid of them. There are days where Jaehyun would wake up in a jolt to hear the echo of skin slapping skin - most probably his mother had given his father a hurtful slap, and there are days where  _this_  would happen.

 _This_  referring to his mother's screaming and accusing screeches, and his father is probably strutting away from her in an attempt to either avoid or reflect the situation towards her. His mother, though Jaehyun has never properly conversed with her, is someone he knows to be of egoistical pride, often surrounding herself to become successful and not only reach, but break high standards, someone who an over-achiever, someone who accomplished things not for her own satisfaction, but to proudly show it off. She especially hates it when someone picks on the things she lacks at; being a mother as one of them, and his father tends to pick on that flaw of his mother the most, just like today.

The voices outside are muffled by the loud rain droplets and the howling of the harsh wind, but Jaehyun's ears perk up, much to his own dissatisfaction and disappointment of himself, to hear what his parents are saying to one another.

"You cannot just simply walk away after what you've done! What the hell were you thinking?!" His mother's screech resounded, her wailing accompanied by a soft punch to the wall which Jaehyun hears, causing himself to flinch at the thought of how much it would hurt his own hand to collide with the wall.

"Probably how damn horrible my wife is." He hears his father replying, a static and calm vibe oozing out, but Jaehyun knows he must be holding back himself, preventing himself from thoroughly damaging an already damaged marriage.

"How horrible of a wife I am? Have you seen yourself as a husband? You couldn't even spare one second off of your schedule to the premiere and exhibition!" His mother rebounded, fighting with the little amount of come backs she must have.

"Why would I go to a premiere only to be an accessory? Just like you, who can't ever approve of standing below someone, I can never approve of being your accessory." His father spat, venom lacing his words along with a slight tinge of something else Jaehyun frequently hears leaking from his voice, causing Jaehyun's heart to constrict within his chest in a painful clench.

Jaehyun thinks that the fight occurring right now is much better, much paler, less logical than the fights before. Before, they would fight regarding Jaehyun along with accusations of cheating with one another, along with how horrible the other person is if they did something terribly awful that day, but today's fight is petty. Terrifyingly petty, if Jaehyun dared to think so. His father not making an appearance at one of his mother's exhibitions? Something like so happens often, and Jaehyun sees his mother brushing away comments of "Where's your husband?" from the reporters coolly with a beautiful smile engraving her facial features, replying with a soft and delicate, "My husband is unfortunately too busy to attend this exhibition. He is, after all, a wonderful man who has a job to focus on, too.". Why would they fight regarding this?

The answer hits Jaehyun when he hears the shriek of a glass bottle making an impact upon something, probably a wall, shattering to pieces as it fell to the ground. His mother is drunk, and his father must have been exhausted, so arriving home to being shouted at by his wife over something ridiculous must have riled him up, too.

Jaehyun whimpers to himself as he hears a loud shout coming from his father. This time, Jaehyun purposely closes his ears using his fingers, trying in a vain attempt to block out the sounds now. He doesn't want to hear that. Hearing his mother lose her cool is something that happens frequently, but his father losing his cool is rare, and once it did happen, it would get violent and undeniably scary. In his 18 years of being alive and having been caged inside this house, he has only ever heard his father lose his cool thrice. All of those times are when he was too tired, too exhausted and he didn't have any more energy to try to be the bigger person with his mother. Including this time, it would be four times.

Jaehyun couldn't hear what happened afterwards, but he can hear his mother's screeches of pain. Jaehyun decides to lie down on his side on the floor, hiding his face in his knees as he closes his eyes shut. A while after having silenced the outside world from himself, Jaehyun pulls his fingers away from his ears, and crawls to a sitting position again. Instead of looking outside of the door to his balcony, Jaehyun sits across the door which divides himself from the corridor of the second floor of his house. 

If it is still the same routine which happens often, Jaehyun's father should have already pulled out of the driveway in his sleek, black Porsche, speeding away into the night, away from the house, away from his wife and child. Jaehyun's mother might be on her way to grab her own set of car keys to her red Mercedes Benz, to leave the house just like his father does. Jaehyun doesn't know if they meet again afterwards, or they go on in their own separate ways, but it was most likely the latter seeing as they often don't come back home for weeks or even months, and when they do, they would be alone. Jaehyun doesn't know who it is that comes home, though, since that person would not even come in to check if Jaehyun is still alive, or come to check in on Jaehyun at all. 

Most of the time when it happens, Jaehyun thinks he didn't mean anything to his parents; that he is simply someone they have to care for until he leaves for college or university, so that the law won't ever be against them. The time for Jaehyun to leave for college would be in another year, and Jaehyun thinks what would happen to his parents when he leaves - if anything would even change at all.

Against his better judgement, Jaehyun comes to the decision to stand on his own two feet, walking towards his bedroom door. His legs feel wobbly and his feet feel uncomfortable from having been pressing against one another or against the floor with so much pressure to the point where the blood circulation there must have gotten disturbed. Though painful and uncomfortable, Jaehyun still stands and he opens the door of his bedroom, leading to the corridor.

Looking to his right, Jaehyun sees nothing except for the light cascading the corridor with soft, gentle light from the vintage torch-like lights, illuminating the room with a glow from the walls and showing slight bits of the paintings which cover the walls from where Jaehyun is standing. Looking to his left, however, he sees his mother on the ground, back slumping against the wall, shoulders slouched in an ugly manner. Her eyes are unfocused as they stare at the ceiling, and her gorgeous chestnut brown straight hair flowed down past her shoulders to her waist, surrounding the floor around her. Almost drowsily, as if she has been completely out of the world for a while, she turns her head mechanically to eye Jaehyun. She eyes him from top to bottom, almost in a calculating manner. 

"You've grown up so much to look like both of us, but I don't think you have any of our personalities in you." She chokes out then, and though it resembles much of a croak, Jaehyun can still hear the underlying honey-like voice he hears in the television during live broadcasts.

Instead of replying her, Jaehyun simply nods, looking down timidly as he shifts his weight from his right and left foot alternatively in a rhythm. Maybe that had been a bad move, as while his eyes had wanted to turn downcast, he caught the slight glimpse of red stripes of fresh wounds covering his mother's arms and a small section of her thighs that were exposed from under her nightgown. Jaehyun wonders what those were, and if his assumptions of if they were cuts made by his mother on herself true.

His mother gets up after a while, the ghost of a smile gracing her features as she walks away from Jaehyun, leaving him stranded and alone in the house once again, but not before he hears a depressed whisper coming out from her, something he almost didn't catch until the very last minute he realizes it's coming from her.

"I wonder when you'll finally die." She whispers, her words dripping with disappointment, as if seeing Jaehyun caused an uproar of disappointment in her stomach, frustrating her overwhelmingly.

Jaehyun presses his lips together, shuffling back inside his room wordlessly as he closes the door lightly, gently as to not cause any sound in the serene environment of the house now. Jaehyun wonders, indeed, when will he die?

Suicide has been an option inside of Jaehyun's mind for years now, and he has indeed attempted to do so before. He had cut his wrists, trying to find the one vein that would cause him death instantly once cut, but he couldn't find the vein. He has seen bleach around the house before when he was hungry or thirsty, and he tried to consume the bleach, but he had thrown up the second he swallowed the liquid, tears flowing down his cheeks constantly at the burn in his throat and the unsettling feeling in his stomach. Jaehyun has prayed to fall asleep and not wake up the day after, but his prayers were never approved of, answered with only rejection as he awoke the next day.

They said you are still alive because  _someone_  in this world still needs you alive, still needs you to breathe and bring life another day, but Jaehyun can't think of anyone who would still need him alive, who would still wish for him to come forth another day. Jaehyun can only think of how much easier his parents' lives would be without him burdening them, without him in the picture. He can only think of how his parents might be able to breathe easier without having to look after Jaehyun, without having a child in their house to fend for and having to come back often to make sure he's alive, so that they won't be charged for child neglect in court.

* * *

"Do I resemble my parents by much?" Jaehyun voices out his question to his teacher, Mr. Jungsu while he looks towards his Korean History exercise paper.

"Why the sudden question?" Mr. Jungsu asks, and though Jaehyun couldn't see it, he knows the older man has an eyebrow cocked up.

Jaehyun shakes his head as he replies, "No, just- I just wonder, y'know. If when people see me, they would think I look like them."

Jaehyun hopes Mr. Jungsu didn't hear the slight shake and waver in his voice, but even if he did notice, Jaehyun knows that he's the type of person who was kind enough to not probe himself further in Jaehyun's privacy without Jaehyun's own consent of being invaded by questions. It has been a week, Jaehyun thinks, since his parents left the house after their fight. They hadn't come back home at all, and Jaehyun wonders if they had stocked up on instant food a while back just for this occasion. 

His mother's words left a nagging question in Jaehyun's mind. It really shouldn't, since he is the biological son of both his parents, and therefore of course he would have a resemblance to one or both of them. Though he had tried to tell himself so, the question still replayed in his mind all night and day, as if it's being played on a broken recorder over and over again.

"Well, I guess you do. You have your mother's hair and smile, but definitely your father's masculinity, height and eyes." Mr. Jungsu replies after scrutinizing Jaehyun closely, figuring out which parts of him belonged to who. "But well, I think your personalities kind of differ from theirs. If people saw you, they might say you look so much like them like a cross between them." Mr. Jungsu continues in his answer to the young boy's question.

"Oh, thanks." Jaehyun murmurs back, nodding his head as he circles 'B' as the answer for one of the questions, also coloring in the 'B' on his objective answers sheet.

"Should I also tell you that I'll be seeing your mother later?" Mr. Jungsu asks as he eyes Jaehyun's answer on the paper, clicking his tongue inaudibly at the wrong, common answer Jaehyun had circled.

"What?" Jaehyun croaks, lifting his head to look at Mr. Jungsu in an attempt to view if there's any shadow of a lie in his eyes, hoping and wishing for there to be even a small, single streak of that shadow, but he fails to see any.

"Yeah. She'll come around by the time you're done with your class, I guess." Mr. Jungsu says, and he shrugs his shoulders as he pats Jaehyun's head in an easing manner.

Mr. Jungsu has no idea of what goes around in the house, but he and every other teacher knows that Jaehyun doesn't necessarily have the most picturesque family relationship with his parents. After all, the signs are already there in the house, what with how Jaehyun almost never mentioning his parents, and even if he did, it was only when someone else mentions them first in a conversation. They know Jaehyun is uncomfortable whenever the topics come around, though he tries to mask how he feels, it did show from time to time on days where he isn't careful enough to guard himself or he was caught off guard by the teachers.

Jaehyun remains tight lipped as he looks back down to his exercise, trying to get as much right as he can while also trying to complete the questions he was given in record-breaking time, or any time which means he will not be meeting his mother again. He is quite adamant on avoiding his mother, wanting nothing more but to not burden her any further with having to look after Jaehyun. After all, she is a woman with a career she protects and defends more sincerely and genuinely than he would ever glance at her own son. It baffles Jaehyun enough to know that Mr. Jungsu is positive of his mother coming back to the house today to speak with him, which means he must have contacted her beforehand for this meeting. For whatever reason the meeting is to be held for, Jaehyun doesn't know, and Jaehyun doesn't know if he has the rights to ask. 

Jaehyun has always been the quiet child for his parents, as he knows he's only a bother to them; an extra luggage they would rather not carry on their shoulders. As he is already an extra baggage, Jaehyun tries to be the most silent of baggage - the lightest, so that they wouldn't even realize his existence by much, so he doesn't become too heavy to carry. Jaehyun is unsure of when he is allowed to open his mouth to speak, for after all, his parents has given him everything without him asking. In Jaehyun's eyes, that seem to mean that they do not need to know what Jaehyun wants - that it would be too much for them if Jaehyun asks them of something, so they hand it to Jaehyun before he would ask it. Of course, they would only leave the items on the kitchen isle for Jaehyun to find them during the afternoon to eat breakfast before his classes began, but that was how he has been given items since he was a little boy who understood only a minimal of the things happening in his own house.

"We'll be talking about possible university choices for you after next year. Holidays are going to start in another three days, after all." Mr. Jungsu says suddenly, making Jaehyun tighten his grip on his pencil.

Jaehyun breathes out, feeling uncomfortable and feeling his throat restricting painfully. He suddenly feels the urge to purge everything he has eaten that day, and he feels revolted by himself. He feels his stomach twisting in different directions, in different knots, and he feels his head cloud with how utterly disgusted he feels towards himself. 

He feels as if he has just pried into his mother's privacy, a border he has no rights to step into, by knowing what she would be speaking with Mr. Jungsu about.

Attempting to pull himself together, to mask how horrible he feels, Jaehyun quickly finishes the exercise in his hands in the speed of light. He is unsure if he answers correctly or not, but he only wants to run up the stairs now, and to force himself to throw up into his room's private bathroom's toilet bowl. He feels wrong, he feels as if he did something terrible to his mother by being a useless, curiosity-driven child. Therefore, once he completes his work, he hands it to Mr. Jungsu, bows politely to the older man, say his usual, "Thank you for coming and teaching me today, Mr. Jungsu." to his teacher before collecting his things and in a way to not break his facade, he manages to averagely go up the stairs, wobbling only at the last steps once he reaches the second floor before he lurches forward, falling onto the ground and closing his mouth to avoid throwing up on the floor, shutting his eyes tightly as he swallows back the little, disgusting bits of vomit that has crawled its way up his throat.

* * *

Taeyong mutters slightly incoherent words under his breath as he highlights the already highlighted important notes in his Law notebook. His Law notebook, to say the least, is a world-class disaster ridden, most probably rat-infested book in all of planet Earth. It has too many post-it notes covering every single page with overflowing notes that didn't fit in that one page about a certain topic, it has words which have been highlighted over and over again in a vain attempt to re-memorize everything before the exam ensues the day after, or right now, when he needs to do an assignment on the Korean law and how it had evolved through the years.

He's not really sure why he has to do this for his Law finals in the upcoming term after his break. Isn't that for, like, History? He does it anyway, because he needs those wretched marks for his finals, or else he wouldn't be able to score his usual on-the-border A+ for his finals, which he desperately needs if he intends to keep his scholarship student label on himself and to continue studying.

Taeyong's family isn't exactly poor. He isn't living in a dingy house which has leaking roofs and he doesn't need to use an outdoor toilet or bathroom. Taeyong often has more than enough food for the day, and he lives in, of course, an air-conditioned living space. His two parents work respectable jobs; his mother for a private bank firm and his father for a private auditing firm. He isn't poor, but he isn't extremely well-off. There are things his parents wouldn't mind paying for him; his school trips to foreign countries, his everyday allowance for food, water and his apartment's rent, along with the much needed extra sets of notebooks Taeyong requires for his classes, but if the bill is over the roof, something they couldn't possibly indulge in for it could be a risk to their everyday amount of spending, they wouldn't possibly. Their goal is to provide their children with a comfortable living life, full of promising futures while still allowing them to live their life to the fullest while they still can - while they were children with no heavy responsibilities weighing upon their shoulders.

University fees? Those are definitely over-the-top for certain universities, and Taeyong's is one of them. Luckily, Taeyong has managed to snatch a scholarship from the university, allowing him to pay only 30% of his tuition fees. In his freshman year, Taeyong stayed in the university's dorms due to having to save up money and he spent the money he has quite frugally by then. Afterwards, after countless part-time jobs in one go, countless overtime shifts and long nights in gas stations, Taeyong had saved enough money to be able to move out of the dorms to the more comfortable apartment building near his university. Before he was allowed to leave, though, his friends in the dorm had a party to congratulate Taeyong for finally having enough balls to live independently and to stop nagging at them when they left too many t-shirts on the ground after a whole day of partying during Saturdays. It had been sad, with Ten having sobbed into his shoulder after he had an extra drink too much and complaining about how he wouldn't have someone to listen to him and aid him when examinations are around the corner. There was also Doyoung, the one who would always pick at Taeyong for every single thing, no matter good or bad, who ended up wailing and screaming over how much he would miss having Taeyong around the dorms to drag him and carry him back to his room at 1 A.M. if he saw him passed out in the Lounge. His friends were his everything, and they still are, but Taeyong needed and had decided to live independently, so the day after, he had brought his bags to his new apartment with some friends and the help of some workers from a moving company, and had begun his life as an independent student and son.

Now, it has been a year since he had started his life alone in the apartment, and he had gotten used to plenty of things. For instance, the coming back home to no one snoring or coming out of the room only to shout at you to make them instant black bean noodles in the middle of the night or the absence of lights and presence of someone else in the house when he enters it after a long day. What he still isn't used to, though, is when every break arrives and Taeyong decides to stay at his apartment instead of going back home to his parents, and he has to deal with being a sloth alone at home, with nothing to do, except to stare blankly at his  _oh, so god damn, so beautiful, so ethereal, so enchanting_ walls or his notes for his over-the-break assignment.

Taeyong is still flabbergasted how he is having a break, but did the lecturers decide to give him a break? No, they did not. Instead, he has about five different types of assignments to complete for five different subjects.

Will Taeyong do them now? Probably not.

Putting the cap back on his coral-colored highlighter, Taeyong blindly throws the highlighter away. He hears it knocking against glass, probably hitting against Taeil's hanging and framed high school certificate, before it lands down on the tiled floor of his room with a few thuds. Taeyong is exhausted from pondering over which fact is needed to go where in his Law folio for over three hours now, so he decides that he, indeed, very much deserves a short break.

Taeyong stands up from his chair with support by gripping onto the chair's arms, before he wobbles tiredly to his bed, flopping himself on it ever so gracefully. He lands with his face sinking in his fluffy and incredibly soft bed mattress which he loves, and he reaches a hand out to grab his phone which he had left under the pillow before he began studying. Leaving his phone under his pillow is a habit Taeyong had picked up while he was in dorms. Before he sleeps, he would slide his phone under his pillow, so that if ever someone calls him for his help in the middle of the night, Taeyong could hear it and answer the call - or purposely ignore it and say it was muffled by his pillow. Before studying, too, he puts his phone under his pillow to avoid himself from getting distracted by anyone calling or messaging him on KakaoTalk, and the habit stayed with him until now.

Not to his surprise, he sees a flood of KakaoTalk notifications appearing on his matte black iPhone 7's screen. He presses the home button which unlocks his device, and he inputs his 6-digit pin. Taeyong isn't exactly a fan of the fingerprint security for his iPhone since he did try to activate the security, but his dumb iPhone couldn't even properly scan his fingerprint, therefore he stopped bothering with it and simply went for the original and classic pins.

Immediately, Taeyong shuffles through a few folders in his iPhone before he reaches his folder when he keeps his Social Networking applications in. He presses on his KakaoTalk application, and almost immediately, the screen showcases the group chat of him and his friends.

**[ MLP GOT ME JAAAMED !! ]**

**ChittaPRRR: MLP? My Little Pony? are you fucking serious?**  
**MinDongSaeng Markelele: uhm, could you, like, maybe, idk, stop kid show shaming me???**  
**Donghyuck Whai: maybe they would if you stopped trynna be such a kid when you're already 19.**  
**Moomin Is Love, Moomin Is Life: OH MY GOD, HE DID THAT.**  
**Not EXO's Chen, Dis Chen Lee: You know what, I stan Donghyuck more than I stan Renjun's drawings now.**  
**Moomin Is Love, Moomin Is Life: you screeching dolphin, you did Not Just.**  
**Jirrit, jisung, sQUIRRRT: can we just talk about how chenle is actually using proper capitalization??? and proper punctuation???**  
**Afterschool's Wannabe Nana: HA HA HAHAGSJAHDKSADKDSA. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA.**  
**Papa John's Pizza: did satan posses him???????????? What The Heck???????**  
**Jeyes: don't worry. jaemin just forgot to go to his doctor's appointment for his braces and now he has to wear them for another year.**  
**ChittaPRRR: wait, since when does jaemin even wear braces to begin with, what the fuck.**  
**Don'touchyoung: EXACTLY. but he can't keep his mouth shut, so maybe someone punched his skull enough to make his teeth pop to the front.**  
**Afterschool's Wannabe Nana: UHM, EXCUSE ME YOU DONKEY ASS BUNNY???**  
**Moony boo boo Ill: Language, Jaemin.**  
**Afterschool's Wannabe Nana: uGH.**  
**Don'touchyoung: HAH U UNDERAGED CHILD.**  
**Jeyes: at least he acts older than he is which is fine but u act like u're high on maple syrup 24/7.**  
**Afterschool's Wannabe Nana: breathe if u think lee jeno is the finest man alive, i lurv.**

**guys, save me. i'm tired and lazy and i just wanna cry and delete my life right now.**

**Papa John's Pizza: whoa there, another mid-life crisis?**

**i am offended. i am merely,,,**  
**wait, i'm younger than you.**  
**what the heck johnny, you're a complete Joke.**

 **ChittaPRRR: I CAN'T BRE AT  H E OH MY GOD HJGSDGKJSAHD. HAHAHHAHAHA JOHNNY IS A JOKE.**  
**MinDongSaeng Markelele: no wonder you guys compliment each other so well.**  
**Donghyuck Whai: and taeyong will say -**

**You're Grounded, Mark Lee.**

**Donghyuck Whai: You're Grounded, Mark Lee.**  
**Donghyuck Whai: oh, wow, i was right and oN POINT AS HECK.**  
**Not EXO's Chen, Dis Chen Lee: Taeyong, do you need any help to reorganize your life?**  
**Don'touchyoung: he should probably go ahead and organize his room first.**

**my room is more organized than your mom's lasagna.**

**Don'touchyoung: DON'T BRING MY MOTHER INTO THIS!!!!!!!!!!**  
**Lucasay HEEEEY: it is kind of true though. your mom needs to work on her lasagna presentations.**  
**JungJJAJJANG woo best: lucas, don't compare a housewife to taeyong and yours' international 5-star hotel chef food presentations.**  
**MinDongSaeng Markelele: WAIT, WHY AM I GROUNDED.**  
**ChittaPRRR: why are u replying so l8????**  
**Donghyuck Whai: we're at mark's house rn and we're baking cookies.**  
**Ratatatata Yuta: what baking, more like exploding. i just heard a fucking BOOM from ur house.**  
**MinDongSaeng Markelele: oh no that was donghyuck microwaving an egg.**  
**Afterschool's Wannabe Nana: WHY WOULD YOU MICROWAVE AN EGG.**  
**Moomin Is Love, Moomin Is LIfe: ^^^^^^^^^^ x infinite.**

**u know what. i just got a gr8 plan.**

**Not EXO's Chen, Dis Chen Lee: Which means it's a horrible plan.**

**Shut Up.**  
**i'm going to go hiking.**

 **Winwinnie My Baby: if you see yuta, please bring him back home.**  
**Ratatatata Yuta: WINWIN, I'M LITERALLY JUST AT THE GROCER'S.**  
**Lucasay HEEEEY: wait are there even mountains here to hike, what the heck??**  
**Moomin Is Love, Moomin Is Life: ^^^^^^^ x infinite x infinite.**

 **there's that hill close to our university, right?**  
**so why not.**  
**we've never went there, so.**

 **ChittaPRRR: wAHT THE HECK TAEYONG,W HAT IF U GET KIDNAPPE DBTY THE SPIDERS TEHRE AND DIE.**  
**Papa John's Pizza: now where did proper spelling go to.**

**i won't get kidnapped by spiders and i won't die.**

**JungJJAJJANG woo best: how the heck did taeyong even understand him?**  
**Afterschool's Wannabe Nana: i gOT THE RECIPE. AND IT'S CALLED, BLACK MAGIC.**  
**Jeyes: i'm pretty sure the song isn't like that.**  
**Not EXO's Chen, Dis Chen Lee: Definitely not.**  
**Not EXO's Chen, Dis Chen Lee: Taeyong, if you want to go hiking, then go. Make sure you bring enough food and drinks to stay hydrated and healthy while you hike!**  
**Jirrit, jisung, sQUIRRRRT: yeah, taeyong. and take pretty pictures !!!!!! i need to do a story telling when i get back to school, rip. i can just fake a story and say i went on a hike during holidays.**  
**Not EXO's Chen, Dis Chen Lee: Yeah, photos would make your story seem more real unlike that one where you said you opened a door to space.**  
**Jirrit, jisung, sQUIRRRRT: THAT WAS IN A DREAM. IT HAPPENED FOR REAL. STOP DREAM SHAMING ME.**

 **i'm gonna go pack now, see you guys later.**  
**don't forget to eat and stay healthy.**  
**make sure you guys drink water.**  
**stay out of the sun if you don't want to get burned.**  
**make sure you rest enough if you play outside,**  
**do your homework early so you won't rush it to chase the deadline.**  
**stay safe.**  
**okay?**

 **ChittaPRRR: DON'T MAKE ME SCARED BY SOUNDING LIKE YOU'RE GONNA DIE ON YOUR HIKE, OMG.**  
**Papa John's Pizza: ten, stop being a complete drama queen.**  
**Don'touchyoung: u still love him which is disgusting.**  
**Moony boo boo Ill: i agree with doyoung on that one.**  
**Jirrit, jisung, sQUIRRRRT: so is anyone gonna tell me why is chenle using proper everything in text??????**

* * *

Protecting his eyes from the harsh and brutal Sun's magnificent blinding rays, Taeyong glances up the hill, peaking slightly over his arm towards the top of the hill. Hill isn't exactly the correct word to describe it, but it definitely isn't a mountain either. It looks more as if it's one of those under-developed places of the city where the government wishes for it to preserve its natural beauty, awe-striking passersby which go pass the area in their cars or in the trains from the train railway not far from the location itself. Maybe on top of the hill, or anywhere near the top, there would be a small picnic area for tourists who ever has the idea to even climb up the hill - and hopefully, there would be no drug addicts making dealings with drug dealers in the lush abundant of trees and beautiful flora of the hill.

Also, Taeyong simply has no intent on being caught up in some dirty and illegal ordeal because he would very much love to keep his record spotless and clean to earn himself a respectful job in the future as a lawyer, thank you very much. Having a criminal record, even though it isn't technically his fault but he would still be involved, is not exactly the ideal type of person law firms wish to absorb into their company.

Taeyong hits his forehead with his palm, shaking his head a little to throw out the thoughts of there being any criminals uphill. As he glances back towards his backpack which has a change of clothes in any case he gets caught in the rain, some food and water supply along with a knife since Taeyong just never leaves anywhere without his knife as he's paranoid enough after watching too many episodes of 'Law & Order: SVU'. Doyoung says Taeyong is just a wimp who's paranoid at everything, even the rustle of leaves in the wind, but Taeyong denies because he hates to admit anything Doyoung spits out is true.

"Alright, let's go." Taeyong mumbles to himself in English, Mark having rubbed off of him in the period of time they had spent together back during his university days.

Taeyong reaches one side of the hill, and he begins his journey up, clutching onto his bag's strap tightly until he's sure there would be angry red marks fluttering about his skin later. Taeyong isn't so confident in hiking or climbing uphill alone, without his friends, but most of them has already went back home, and the ones who didn't have part-time jobs they couldn't possibly leave only to go hiking with Taeyong since he's been bored off of his ass ever since he stopped working part-time last term once it got too tiring to juggle both his Law major student life and his part-timer job at a cafe which requires more customer service than Taeyong ever deemed possible for a cafe.

Taeyong is still going to do this, though. He's already here, after all, and he needs to take photos for Jisung's Show and Tell session in class. Taeyong ignores the nagging Ten in his mind which screams that Taeyong just has too much of a pride to turn back and go home.

Ten is always right when he's actually sane and not being over-dramatic, and the Ten that nags at the back of Taeyong's head is often times, if possible, even more right than the actual Ten.

* * *

The path uphill has gotten even more narrower the higher Taeyong climbed up, and the path has never been wide to begin with. It accommodates one person perfectly in its narrow, small dirt path since the beginning, but now it merely accommodated one foot per time, the other foot always having to be ahead and Taeyong needs a large expanse of space in between his legs to be able to achieve a good balance of body so as to not fall on the ground in an awkward jumble of limbs.

Taeyong looks forward after he situates his legs to a good distance from one another, and he sees the path having divided into two. One up ahead, and another to the left. The one up ahead, obviously, leads more towards the top of the hill, while the left leads somewhere unknown, the path being encased by tall, healthy green trees and lushes of gorgeous bushes with elegant flowers blooming on them in random places.

"It actually looks pretty well kept of." Taeyong says to himself, pondering over wanting to go to the left or up ahead.

Thinking back to what he had thought earlier today, about maybe there was a place for a small picnic somewhere up the hill or around the top of it, Taeyong begins to inch himself more towards the left road. After all, if there had been people wanting to do some drug dealings, they wouldn't have kept the area full of greenery and the beauty of nature, as Chenle would have liked to put it. They wouldn't have taken the time in their hands to grow breathtaking plants, or if they hadn't planted the plants and the plants had been made from purely natural dispersion of seeds, they still wouldn't have taken time to actually give the plants water for them to grow healthily. After all, the left path is the only path where the plants actually looked as if someone has been caring for them, rather than the surrounding areas of it where the trees have fallen leaves spread out and about in a ridiculous manner, the trees only being given nutrition and hydration when the rain befalls the Earth.

Taeyong pats his back pocket to be sure that his knife is still there, ready to be used in a case of emergency. When he feels the knife there, he exhales a breath of relief, nodding to himself and moving deeper into the hill, to the left path, to discover what he hopes to be a picnic space to bring everyone to once they all arrived back to the university dorms before the new term begins.

* * *

Jaehyun turns over the book in his hands, fingers trailing over the paperback cover of the book, or maybe it's a manuscript, Jaehyun's not quite sure. The edges of the pages are yellow, but it isn't the type of bright yellow that looks fresh, it looks as if it's the yellow of decaying paper. A yellow that's deemed ugly, but it attracts the attention of Jaehyun at how antique it looks. It looks as if the book is old, ancient, even. Possibly, maybe. Jaehyun decides to open the book, pinching one side of it and supporting it by the book's spine, a hand holding it firmly in his hold. He flips through the pages in a swift movement, the scent of the old papers flowing about in the air around him, and Jaehyun inhales the welcomed smell happily, a soft smile making its way on his lips and he knows, though he cannot see, his dimples have formed on his cheeks, too, slightly, almost invisible as his smile isn't too wide.

He adjusts himself on his bed, resting his head back on his bed's frame, and his legs cross over one another under his duvet. He brings his hands holding the book up, and he reads the words on the front of the page.  _Hamlet, a play written by William Shakespeare._

Jaehyun sighs longingly as he reads the word 'play'. He had always wanted to go to plays. He wants to go see plays, see the people acting on stage with their voices booming perfectly in the venue; not too loud to cause your ears pain, and not too soft that you must strain your ears to listen. He wants to see the beauty of the dresses the actresses wear, and the enchanting clothing the actor would have adorned on his body. He wants to see the fluid movements and the accuracy of the facial expressions the actors are able to wear on stage; as if they were the ones who are truly going through the story in the script, as if everything that has been happening around them is real, it isn't an act, and that is their life. Jaehyun wonders if he could have some free time when he's finally in university to attend any plays, if there are any plays in Korea in the first place.

Jaehyun sits up straight on his bed then, and swings his legs off of his bed. He reaches for his laptop that he's placed atop of his bedside table, beside a glass of the cold chocolate drink he made earlier to push away the craving for food when he felt even though it was only an hour after his breakfast. He sets his laptop on top of his lap, and flipping it open, he turns it on.

The screen of his laptop is pitch black for a while, until it flows with energy and the laptop lights up. He can hear the buzzing of the laptop's fan, and he knows his lap would be in pain and feel hot after a while of being in this position, but not yet. For now, Jaehyun can handle the laptop on top of his body.

Once the laptop is on, Jaehyun uses the mouse pad to navigate himself through his laptop. He has seen his desktop's background often now to not be too enchanted by the beautiful photograph his father had captured of Venice, Italy. It showcases the extravagant elegance of the city, the beauty of it though it isn't like those beauty of Paris, France. It's still beautiful - Jaehyun's father knows how to take photographs, after all, and taking photos of the things he loves made his photographs even more mesmerizing.

Jaehyun wonders how his photo would look if his father captures it, but Jaehyun thinks the thought of capturing Jaehyun on a photograph would never even once graze against his father's thoughts in his mind.

Jaehyun blinks a couple of times, gulping soundly as he tries to put the thoughts into a box in his mind and pushes it into the furthest, darkest corner of his conscious. He opens Google Chrome, and he types out ' _Hamlet play summary_ ' into the search engine. Soon, thousands of search results appear, and Jaehyun brings himself to click on the one at the top. The page turns white for a while, until a parade of paragraphs and photos appear on the page of Hamlet's play summary. Jaehyun scrolls through the page, and he begins to read the summary of how Hamlet was called back home from his school in Germany to attend his father's funeral, and the shock he experienced when he found out his mother had remarried his father's brother - who also took over the throne of Denmark when Hamlet is suppose to have taken the throne as he is the heir of the throne itself.

Jaehyun nods to himself as he silently reads the page, pinching his chin with his fingers as he goes through. He makes a mental note to read the book later, after he does his Pre-Calculus work. After all, one of his parents had arrived home today and dropped some more food on the kitchen isle along with this book not for him to lack in his studies. The book is meant to keep him preoccupied and entertained for a while, to make sure he shackles himself in thoughts of building a respected future for himself and to keep his sanity, not to drown him in a fantasy and a dream of a work of fiction from a dead man.

* * *

Taeyong looks up to the intimidating house in front of him. He wonders just how many times has he had to look up to view something today, and he also wonders if this is a house or a mansion, because it looks enormous, or at least more enormous than all of the houses back in the city down the hill. 

The house is large, for a lack of better words, but surprisingly, Taeyong finds that there is no gates surrounding the house, at all. The security in the house seems to be lacking on a high scale, and Taeyong would have thought that the house was abandoned but Taeyong can clearly see how the house seems to have life in it. The flowers out on the porch in the pots look to have been watered not long ago, probably during the dawn if the person who watered them cared enough to water them at the right time of the day. Taeyong notices how there is, indeed, an area for a picnic inside the premises of the house, in the lawn over to its right where there also stood a grill and a paper bag that looked to be full of charcoal. There are grape vines lacing and holding onto a part of the roof, crawling down to the pillars which hold a small part of roof to cover the house's porch. There are no cars, but there is a pair of slippers at the front of the, what Taeyong assumes to be, main door of the house. The door itself is wooden, and Taeyong can see intricate designs of flowers and grazes of lines to form an effect of light around the flowers. There's even one balcony on the house, the balcony facing down to the city below, attached to another room. Taeyong thinks that must be the master's bedroom, and Taeyong takes note of how there's also a tall glass table beside a black lazy chair which has some gold designs on it.

The house itself is looming over Taeyong in an awkward angle. After all, it is a hill, and the house looks out to the city below in a position that could cause Taeyong fear if he had to live in there himself. It's bad enough Taeyong is a wimp and is scared of heights, it's definitely horrible if he has to live in a house at this height, in that much of a terribly angled angle. Though it looks terrifying, Taeyong can see how the house is deeply rooted into the soil of the Earth, ensuring it safety and protection from colliding down and crumbling to the ground. After looking more around, Taeyong notices how most of the set furniture around the house has been rooted in the soil the same way as the house, like the picnic area for example and the grill.

An idea strikes Taeyong's mind as he slips inside the house's compounds. He races himself to stand below the balcony. Not directly under, but close enough to the balcony. He brings one of his arms up to the sky, and he takes a deep breath.

Now, let's do some Romeo and Juliet that Ms. Taeyeon and taught his English Literature class just a week or so ago during the last week of the term.

* * *

"Juliet, Juliet! Let down your hair!" A voice booms from outside of Jaehyun's room, and Jaehyun flinches and jolts, fear and suspicion both creeping its way inside of his chest, coloring his heart with the emotions.

No one has ever done anything like so, and Jaehyun's classes have ended just two weeks ago when holidays begun, so there was a 0% chance for that to be any of his teachers. If it is one of his teachers, Jaehyun would think it to be Ms. Sooyoung, but the voice he hears isn't that of a female at all. In fact, it's the voice of a male. Albeit, the male voice isn't deep and low like his father's, but it sounded like someone who's young, someone who has all of the life in the world, someone who sounds to be the happiest and most breathtaking person in the world. Jaehyun feels a minuscule of envy underneath is fear and suspicion, but he puts that down. He doesn't even know who this man is. He could be a killer for all Jaehyun knows, not that any killer has ever appeared in front of Jaehyun in the flesh as his house is quite hidden from below with the trees of the hills. The only people who knew of the existence of the house are only his teachers, his parents and himself.

Despite having fear and suspicion in himself, Jaehyun is also full of curiosity, which only piqued even more as he hears a rumble of a laugh. It sounds happy, too. It doesn't sound ethereal like his mother's laugh that Jaehyun hears on television, but it sounds more genuine, more sincere, more  _real_. Jaehyun wonders if the man is drunk or on drugs, but Jaehyun also wonders if this man is simply happy, and Jaehyun wonders what the man is doing, if ever he isn't drunk or on drugs and hallucinating that there really is a Juliet somewhere on Jaehyun's balcony, seeing as the voice sounds close, as if it's directly outside of his balcony.

"Oh shit, wait, that's Rapunzel!" Jaehyun hears a screech this time, and Jaehyun blinks his wide eyes incredulously, a breath of a laugh escaping past his pair of lips.

Deciding that maybe the man isn't a killer who wants to murder Jaehyun - though, if it had been in the middle of the night, Jaehyun wouldn't have quite mind the idea of a killer coming to take his life, but for now, Jaehyun still needs to read Hamlet before he dies -, Jaehyun begins to stand from his seat in front of his study table. He goes to his balcony doors, presses the two handles opposite of one another down, and opens the doors to the open, fresh air of the hill.

"Isn't Juliet suppose to go first? Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Jaehyun calls out from above as he walks to his balcony's divider between himself and the outside.

He looks down to see a young man, probably older than him, but undeniably shorter than he is. The man looks up to Jaehyun, and Jaehyun sees the shock and amusement on his face, and if Jaehyun peers a little bit closer, Jaehyun thinks he might be able to see a glint of excitement in the orbs of the other. The man, Jaehyun notices, has cotton candy pink hair which looks slightly damaged from the  bleach of the hair dye, but it still looks soft and fluffy somehow. The man is wearing a sleeveless loose sky blue top, and a pair of white tracks along with a pair of grey sports shoes from Nike.

"Oh, hey, there's actually someone in this house?" The man says out loud, cupping his mouth to enhance his voice.

Jaehyun looks down from where he's perched on the balcony, and he nods his head as an answer. He rests his arms on the ledge, and bring one up to support his cheek on it. Jaehyun knows he frequently uses this word to describe many things, but this man might just be the epitome of the word.  _Beautiful_. Jaehyun thinks that maybe he's handsome, too, but handsome seems to be do him injustice at giving the man a description. He has a jawline that's defined as if it has been sculptured by God himself, two eyes which are large and beautiful like a feline's, a pair of nose and lips that seem to compliment one another well, and Jaehyun wonders if eyebrows ever looked so perfect on a person before naturally. 

"Can I go in the house, then?" The man asks, and Jaehyun cocks an eyebrow up.

"Why do you think I should let you come in my house, when I don't even know who you are? You might try to kill me." Jaehyun replies back in a logical manner.

"Well, you might be a drug dealer but I'm still here asking myself to come in. Don't you think we should risk some things in our life?" The man retorts.

"Risk my life?" Jaehyun rebounds, and he can feel his lips tugging up to one corner.

"Hey, okay. I'll show you what I've got." Jaehyun sees the other moving a few steps back, away from the balcony, but he still stands to face Jaehyun from below.

Jaehyun notices the man holding up both of his hands, as if in surrender, with a tight-lipped smile that enraptures Jaehyun with how breathtakingly genuine it is. He grins then, showcasing rows of his perfectly pearly white teeth that seems to be in the most orderly organized manner. Then, he reaches back to his back, and Jaehyun flinches on reflex, backing away slightly from his balcony in slight fear of there being a gun, and the possibility that the man might shoot him with it. Although rearing guns in Korea without a license is illegal, Jaehyun is unsure of who the man, what's his profession and the likes. To Jaehyun's surprise, the man lifts up something rectangular but curved, black in color and opaque. Jaehyun tilts his head to the side in question, his brows furrowing to a knit.

"It's a folded knife. See?" The man explains, and he clicks something on the knife, most likely the safety click, and unfolds the knife.

The blade shines and glimmers in the afternoon Sun, and the man twirls the knife around in his hand, proudly showing Jaehyun the silver metal made to cut and endanger. Jaehyun hears a voice in the back of his head, his reasoning, telling him that this is unsafe, that the man is unsafe, that he has a knife and he could use it to murder Jaehyun in the blink of an eye. No one will know Jaehyun has died, then, and his body might be left to rot in his room until his parents smell a corpse in their house, if they will ever considering the fact that they're rarely home to even take in the scent of their own house. Despite the voice, Jaehyun reaches to grab on his balcony's ledge, and grips it firmly, feeling the heat of it radiate through his palms.

"Why are you showing me that? Is it to tell me that it'll be the weapon you use to kill me?" Jaehyun questions, and he knows he has directed it seriously, but he notices that there's still a light joking undertone to his words.

The man ceases his smiling then, letting out a puff of air as his shoulders slump and he looks up to Jaehyun through his pink hair, eyes blinking in a way that almost told Jaehyun the man is thinking that Jaehyun is actually dumb. 

"Of course not. I'm showing you this knife to show you that this is all that I've got. Maybe some food, water and a pair of fresh shoes in my bag out there, too, but this is all on me, and I mean no harm. What killer would show off their weapon to their victim?" The other asks incredulously, and Jaehyun can only manage a small shrug of his shoulders.

"I don't know. You could be. I mean, there are some killers who are quite attached and proud of their weapons. Sadists, you could say." Jaehyun replies, and the man laughs something akin to a soft, breathy cloud, audible and clear, but not loud nor obnoxious.

"I'm not a sadist, if that's the type of verification you need. So like, can I come in? The Sun is killing me, y'know? Jesus Christ." The man asks, while Jaehyun contemplates and weighs out his options.

The man is right, the Sun is starting to beat down on them, mercilessly surrounding them with its hot rays. Jaehyun is now conscious of the sweat that's starting to roll down his forehead, to the side of his face. Jaehyun wonders how hotter it must be for the man, standing there out in the open at Jaehyun's lawn if Jaehyun himself, shaded under his balcony's roof is already feeling the heat of the Sun. The man might faint of a heatstroke if he stands out there for too long, and Jaehyun is unsure if the man has even been under the Sun for long. Although, the man did mention a bag. Could he have climbed up the hill from the bottom? Jaehyun doesn't know, but Jaehyun figures he should help the man, as it's not everyday that Jaehyun is given the opportunity to be kind and provide someone the hospitality of his house.

"Alright, you can. I'll be down in a bit. Wait for me at the front door!" Jaehyun calls out and the man jumps in glee, yelling a short, 'Gotcha!' before fleeing to the right, racing back to the front of the house.

Jaehyun turns away from his balcony and enters his room once again, shivering lightly as his air-conditioned room surrounds him with cold air, a sharp contrast compared to the overall increasing heat of the outdoors. Jaehyun shuts his two wooden doors prior to leaving his bedroom while turning his head around, making sure that his room isn't messy or unclean. It isn't, as Jaehyun usually makes his bed after he wakes up in the morning, and his duvet will always be folded into two if ever Jaehyun continuously uses it through the day. Jaehyun's study table merely has three books open, one big book and another two small ones with a couple sheets of papers hidden in between pages of the books. His stationary are all in his pencil case, safe for his highlighter that's snug in the crease of the big book that's wide open. Jaehyun nods in satisfaction at his room, before he leaves it by going through his door, closing the door firmly until he hears the click which means the door has been shut perfectly.

* * *

Taeyong saddles his bag on his back, his hand gripping one of the straps tightly as he's only using one shoulder to support the whole weight of it. The bag suddenly feels too light, too much of a feather against his back, but Taeyong knows it's not because something in there is missing. Taeyong is aware it's due to the fact that a - very much handsome - stranger is allowing him to enter his huge as heck and definitely different from his own's house. Taeyong isn't sure why he's acting like a child who's just been told by the other kid who likes to sit at the corner of the room all alone that he wants to be friends with Taeyong, but Taeyong knows he is ecstatic.

Taeyong can hear audible sounds from inside of the house - a small yelp of 'Ow, damn.' accompanied by the sound of something colliding against another something, before the click from inside is open and the door is pushed wide open, revealing the handsome stranger who replied to Taeyong's horrible reenactment of Romeo and Juliet mixed with a boat load of Rapunzel. 

With a smile that causes twin dimples to form on the surface of his cheeks, lips that are a nice shade of a light blush pink and eyes which scrunch to endearing crescent moons, Taeyong feels himself trying to grasp for at least even a shred of hair. Taeyong then looks up to avoid looking in the guy's eyes, though that means he has to look even more up and he suddenly regrets it for two reasons. One being because he has to look up so much that he regrets not wearing his insoles today, and two being he regrets it because oh wow, that hair. Chestnut colored hair which seems to be so gorgeous, so beautiful, so smooth that it can't be possibly be real.

"Is your hair real?" Taeyong blurts out, still eyeing the hair in awe before he realizes what he just said, but he's already said it out loud, clear and proud, so he'll probably make a bigger fool out of himself if he tries to take it back.

"What?" The stranger asks incredulously, and Taeyong then looks him in the eye, nodding his head.

"Yeah, I asked if your hair's real. It looks way too smooth to be real, don't you think so?" Taeyong asks, and the stranger laughs something so warm and fluffy, Taeyong now knows the actual literal meaning of clouds.

"Of course my hair's real. There's no way it's a wig or fake." The stranger replies, and Taeyong purses his lips, eyes narrowing to slits as if he doesn't believe the other.

"Yeah, okay. If you say so. But y'know, I have no idea what's your name." Taeyong says, before he's inching up slightly to look above the stranger's shoulder and into the house.

"I don't know yours either." The stranger answers, before he's moving aside and nudging his head towards the interior of the house. "Come in." He utters with a smile, and moves further back while one hand pushes the door more to allow Taeyong more space to enter the house.

"You're suppose to tell me what's your name, not state the obvious back." Taeyong bites, and the stranger lets out yet another laugh, making Taeyong question if he laughs at everything or something like Mark tends to do.

Taeyong saunters inside of the house, bowing his head a slight bit while his eyes wanders around the house. If the exterior of the house knocked the life out of Taeyong, Taeyong's life would be in heaven by now. Inside, the house is full of antique and vintage furniture, almost teleporting Taeyong to another era of time. The floor, Taeyong realizes, is carpeted with luscious, red velvet carpet. The walls have a nice cream colored wallpaper to them which has small intricate designs and there are even torch-like lights littered across along with paintings. There are a few miniature semi-circle tables around with vases full of different types of flowers and photograph frames, but Taeyong notices that there are no photos. What calms Taeyong down to know that he's still in the 21st century and in Seoul, South Korea, is when he looks to the right and sees modern furniture in a monochromatic color palette in what seems to be both the living room with a dining table tucked behind it.

"I'm sorry, then. I'm Jaehyun. How about your name? Mind giving it to me?" The stranger - Jaehyun's - voice pulls Taeyong back to reality, and he twirls around to look at Jaehyun as he mutters, "You can take your shoes off here or outside, if you want."

Taeyong looks to the bottom left and he sees a metallic shoe rack there. He nods his head as he slips his feet out of his shoes, before he's taking the shoes and putting them on the rack while speaking, "Mine's Taeyong. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too." Jaehyun says, and as Taeyong stands to his full height once again, he directs with his chin for Taeyong to walk inside first.

Taeyong does as mutely told, and Jaehyun is then standing beside him in a few moments. Jaehyun is tall, Taeyong realizes. Not as tall as Johnny, but tall enough for Taeyong to feel small and miniature next to him. Unconsciously, Taeyong lets out a small whine from the back of his throat, which catches Jaehyun's attention as the other enters his living room. He side glances towards Taeyong with a questioning look, as if silently asking him what was wrong.

"It's nothing, don't worry. Anyways, I'm more interested on why is there a house here and why in the world have I never seen you anywhere before." Taeyong inquires, following Jaehyun as he goes to the L-shaped black leather couch, plopping on it with a good distance in between them.

"Well, I don't know why this house is here, to be honest. Ever since I could remember, I've been here, and well, how would you know that you haven't seen me before? Do you have an amazing memory or something to remember every living human you pass by on a daily basis?" Jaehyun chuckles as he leans forward of himself, hands tightly enclosing against each other, but his gaze remains on Taeyong.

"Hey, maybe I could've remembered you, y'know. Like, bump into you on purpose or something." Taeyong says easily, shoulders shrugging loosely as he rests his cheek on his hand, much like Jaehyun did earlier by the balcony.

"Huh. But, well, I don't think you would, anyways. Ah, would you like something to drink, though?" Jaehyun asks, and he has his hands spread on his thighs now, ready to bring himself up, but waiting for Taeyong's reply.

"Sure. Do you have strawberry milk or mocha milk?" Taeyong asks, and Jaehyun stands then, going to the back of the room where Taeyong sees, as he twirls around the couch to follow the tall man's movements, that there is a kitchen there.

"I have some homemade strawberry milk, if you don't mind." Jaehyun says, but he's already moving to the fridge without waiting for Taeyong's response.

"I don't. I've never tasted homemade strawberry milk before, though. Is it good?" He questions and Jaehyun comes forward back, two glasses in one hand, lean fingers enclosing around each and another bigger and taller glass bottle which has real, big strawberries on the bottom layer and a layer of milk on top with a long glass stirrer inside of it. "Looks authentic."

"It is authentic." Jaehyun says with an amused smile as he sits down beside Taeyong again, setting the things in his hands on the glass coffee table.

"How did you make this?" Taeyong asks, eyeing the larger bottle as Jaehyun stirs the two layers together, destroying the ombre effect but effectively mixing the two to form a pink hue and color to the milk.

"I saw it on YouTube, and I had the ingredients, so I made it." Jaehyun says as he pours the milk into the two glasses, making sure that the strawberries get inside of the glasses, too.

"You sound like you don't get out of here enough." Taeyong says and Jaehyun gives Taeyong the glass, in which he takes and takes a sip from, eyes widening at the good taste, and he's about to tell Jaehyun how good it is until he chokes instead because of Jaehyun's reply.

"I've never been outside of this house in itself." Jaehyun says with a light and airy laugh, picking up his glass to drink his own milk.

"Say what? You've never been outside of this house?" Taeyong asks, his eyes wide open and bulging, as if they'll fall out of their sockets as he looks at Jaehyun with his face painted a mixture of both fear and awe.

"Well, yes. I've never really had any reason to go out, I guess." Jaehyun mumbles, eyes set firm on his glass while his free hand scratches his nape in embarrassment.

"Let's go, then." Taeyong says in a heartbeat, hands going to Jaehyun's wrist, wrapping his fingers around it, ready to invite Jaehyun to see the outside world.

"Wait, what? For one, the milk and all is out, and I need to lock all of the doors. This house is a whole lot of doors. I don't even know if I can go out." Jaehyun replies, looking at the other man with his eyes colored with fear - but Taeyong can see the underlying excitement and longing in them, too.

"Well, put the milk back, lock the doors, and let's go! No one's here to tell you what you can't do, and even if there are people here, if they don't physically stop you without good reasons, then don't listen to them." Taeyong answers firmly, gulping down the remaining milk in both him and Jaehyun's glasses, not minding Jaehyun's wide eyed stare directed towards him.

"Do you want to kill me?" Jaehyun asks seriously, a look of suspicion and doubt crossing his face, making temporary residence there, and Taeyong barks out a loud laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> FIRST OF, I WANT TO SAY SORRY AND PLEASE DO NOT HATE ME. i did half of this chapter and most of the plot that's depressed as heck when i was incredibly depressed (what was, i still am - jks!). this was suppose to only be a one-shot but after THREE HECKING DAYS of trying to finish this, i realized that Nope, This Ain't A One-Shot, so now it's a chaptered one.  
> thank you for reading and i hope you liked this!  
> +: terribly unbeta-ed. i also IMMENSELY AS HECK apologize for the grammatical errors/double wordings/nonsense that might've happened due to me not beta-reading this (yet).


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